- main - earth.li

I'm off...
by Robert Frusher 05 Sep '04

05 Sep '04

Hello, Just a shorty to say that I am off on the 20th to sunny somerset, I will see if they have a lug (slug... maybe) down there so that I can tax their linux minds. Robert

1 0

Automating sftp
by Graham 05 Sep '04

05 Sep '04

Can anyone explain to a novice the way to automate an sftp batch session without the need to supply a password each time? The manpage refers me to sshd and says I need to configure public key authentication, but what does that mean in practical, step-by-step terms? -- GT

4 4

Mozilla - Dial up.
by Leon Stedman 02 Sep '04

02 Sep '04

In the bottom right corner of my Mozilla screen there is an icon which announces "You are online. Click to go offline". Clicking the icon has no effect other than changing (toggling) the both the icon and the helpful message. Could anyone please explain how to make it do more? It could, for instance, dial the ISP and put me on line, or run a script to achieve the same effect. Leon Stedman

3 3

k3b and CD burning
by Wayne Stallwood 02 Sep '04

02 Sep '04

This is driving me insane Ever since upgrading to my new box (and SuSE 9.1) I can't get creating audio cd's from mp3's to work properly. I have tried every version of k3b I can find (from the version on the SuSe disks, through the version available on YOU to the bleeding edge version 0.11.13 I found on SuSE's website) I have even tried compiling k3b from source (however it seems to dislike or at least not understand 64bit machines) and unless I manually build everything from alsa to qt to the versions it wants it isn't going to work. The truly sickening thing is that it worked once. About the first thing I did when I built my new machine is burn a CD for my Girlfriend to play at work. Now (regardless of what version of k3b I use) I get a perfectly readable CD, with all the track information in the right place, times etc. yet when I try and play it (in a regular CD player) a strange pulsing sound which vaguely resembles the original music is heard (and no someone hasn't overwritten all my mp3's with German techno music...I checked) Funnily enough if I ask k3b to produce a clone copy of an audio cd the result is perfect (something I could never get to work on audio disks before) so at least I know the writing bit is working. I think it is either something to do with the mp3's getting decoded (by the mad_lib ?) or between there and the raw tracks being passed to cdrecord. I am trying to create a disk using the command line tools only (to better understand the stages) However all my mp3's are at 160kps or higher. If I pass them through say mpg123 to get a wav output track how do I resample it to 128kbps so that cdrecord will accept it ? Also after reading the cdrecord man file I wonder if cdrecord is confused about the endian mode of my (admittedly rather current NEC 2510 drive) however if I try and specify -swab in the user parameters for cdrecord within k3b it seems to get ignored (and forgotten) Any ideas, or perhaps a quick how to burn a 160kps mp3 to audio cd using only the command line so I can at least drop cdrecord into verbose mode. Ta Wayne

9 19

Re: [ALUG] Disposing of old kit
by C Neil Bauers 30 Aug '04

30 Aug '04

On Sunday 29 August 2004 9:41 pm, Ted Harding wrote: > Hi Folks, > > Does anyone have suggestions for disposing usefully > (i.e. not simply taking it to the tip^H^H^H recycling > centre) of assorted old computer kit? Try your local post 16 college or sixth form college. The computing students there will be keen to get hold of useful kit. Cheers. Neil.

1 0

Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 30 Aug '04

30 Aug '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

Lifetime email and spam protection
by Graham 29 Aug '04

29 Aug '04

At one time I frequently changed ISP and got fed up with having to tell dozens of people each time about the new email address. The solution I've used for some years is to get a "lifetime email address"; an address that redirects mail to wherever you actually are. There are several places to get these; the one I use is at http://www.pobox.com and costs me $15 per year. You can try one out for a month, free. The only problem with using the same address for a long time - made worse by having a 2-character user ID - is that the spammers find you pretty quickly. I now get anything up to 100 spams a day. However, pobox have just added a spam filter to their basic service, at no extra cost. This seems to be doing a splendid job; I'm getting virtually no spams at all. It's better than any solution you can run on your own computer as it removes the mail at their end, so you don't need to download it to examine it. I can now happily give my address to anyone without fear of being deluged by a new wave of UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). So I'd recommend the pobox.com service to anyone with a spam problem or who regularly changes provider. P.S. I don't get paid for endorsing them. -- GT

3 3

SuSE 9.1 Epson C64 and Gimp-Print
by Martin Collins 27 Aug '04

27 Aug '04

I've googled this one to the limit and I know the answer to the problem but I'm stumped for a solution - can anyone help please? My printer is an Epson C64 and I'm using SuSE 9.1 which has libgimpprint 4.2.6 installed. This version of gimp-print has a known bug for my printer - see http://www.linuxprinting.org/pipermail/epson-list/2004q1/003527.html. It means all my print outs are too high and too much to the left. It's been fixed in version 4.2.7 which is now out. The link above details an "emergency fix" for 4.2.6 but it is only applicable when compiling from source. There lies the problem. You can't uninstall libgimpprint easily due to dependency issues and there's no packaged libgimpprint 4.2.7 for Suse yet (if ever). There's also no libgimpprint source package at all. Further, SuSE does a strange thing in that libgimpprint is a seperate package to cups-printer-drivers which contains the necessary ppd files. However if you compile gimp-print from source it provides both?? Is there anyway I could apply this "emergency fix" described in the link above with my current set up? With previous linux distros I have got around the problem by using a real dirty hack as follows; 1. note the names of all installed libgimpprint.so.x.x.x.x.'s in /usr/lib 2. Without uninstalling package libgimpprint, compile and install gimp-print from source 3. Delete files in 1, above and re-create as symbolic links to the new libgimpprint.so's created in 2. 4. Re-start cups (/etc/init.d/cups restart) 5. Re-configure printer and manually select the newly installed ppd file. I really don't want to break my system this time, as there must be some way to beat this beast, so would really appreciate some advice. Many thanks, Martin

2 4

Subject: [ALUG] disk space and shell patterns, was: Weekly IRC reminder
by Stuart Bailey 26 Aug '04

26 Aug '04

On Wednesday 25 August 2004 06:25, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > It's a shame there wasn't a suitable pretty disk use tool, but I got a > long way (half a gig freed up) by using "du -sk * | sort -n" in home > and working on down the tree. Is there a good pattern (is this a > glob?) which will cover all dot files but not . (current directory) > and .. (parent dir) or is .??* as good as it gets? Have you looked at filelight - it was featured in this months Linux User (well, the september issue). http://www.methylblue.com/filelight It will display a breakdown of your file system in a pie chart type format. Different colours for different file types. The root level (or the top level from where you start) is nearest the centre of the circle. As you move your mouse over the chart, the respective filenames are shown like tool tips. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

3 2

Or not
by Wayne Stallwood 25 Aug '04

25 Aug '04

"I have kept this off list as it is not a Linux related question." Ok so everytime I press reply to a list mail it defaults to the sender rather than the list. "Yes I know why it is this way, I understand that it is my mail client, I am not complaining, just stating a fact" (Wayne, remembering list arguments of old) This behaviour is totally repeatable until I actually intend to reply to the original sender rather than the list, then it defaults to "reply to list"

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Security, firewall?
by John Seago 25 Aug '04

25 Aug '04

On Wednesday 25 Aug 2004 18:22, Ian bell wrote: > Unless you plan on having a static IP and a constant connection to the > internet it is usualy fairly easy to set up. The most straightforward > way is to use an external ADSL modem/router and use this to provide > the necessary rpotection. The one I have is a very cheap one with > four ethernet ports and an 802.11 wireless. At the moment I just use > the wireless coneection. Mine is so simple and cheap it doen't even > have a built in firewall but most ports are blocked by default. Those > that aren't are easily set to stealth mode. > > To find out what ports are vulnerable on your system go to grc.com and > run their shields up programme which will scan your ports for you. > > Ian I have ordered an ADSL modem/router with four ports and wireless, (Linksys WAG54G), so it looks as though I 'm all set, but I'd still like a recommendation on the book, as I would like, however vague, an understanding of what I'm doing! -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

3 2

Re: [ALUG] Security, firewall?
by John Seago 25 Aug '04

25 Aug '04

On Wednesday 25 Aug 2004 23:16, Ian bell wrote: > I really do understand your problem. When I first got my modem and > tried shields up it revealed a few gaping holes. My problem was how > to plug them and where to get the info from about how to do it. I > have quite a few Linux books, even one called the Linux Administrators > Guide, but none of them told me what I need. The problem is none of > them seem to cover the specifics of of present day routers, most of > which seem to run Linux anyway. In the end I did a lot a googling and > asking dumb questions on the UK adsl group until I finaly found what I > needed. So if you DO find a good book that covers this sort of thing, > let meknow, becasue I want one too. > > Ian Aha! This becomes a community project! -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

1 0

Security, firewall?
by John Seago 25 Aug '04

25 Aug '04

On Thursday broadband to my address will be enabled/activated, hitherto I have just used linux, as I have been both too lazy and incompetent to set up any security or a firewall, obviously with the thing being on non-stop I'm going to have to mend my ways. On my box I have an iteration of Slackware 10 on each disk, Debian Sarge on the first disk and a space for Free/Open BSD on the second, I also have a spare box with, I think, enough resources to run another set of Slackware or BSD. I am aware of the existence of Iptables, no more than that. My question is which book should I buy, Building Internet Firewalls, or Practical Unix & Internet Security, both by O'Reilly? Then all I will have left to learn is Emacs, Networking, Email with Sendmail, Fetchmail Exim etc., etc.... -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

3 2

[ALUG Announce]ALUG meeting, late September, West Norfolk
by MJ Ray 25 Aug '04

25 Aug '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hi all, I've had some interest in a meeting in West Norfolk, so I'm trying to help arrange it. I'll be happy to transport some people and kit from King's Lynn to the meeting and back. It will be a "kit fixing and demos" workshop type of meeting. If you want to attend, please email me off-list so I get an idea of numbers. If you'll be there and have a request for topic or to avoid a particular date/time, please mention it and I'll try. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

2 2

Television
by Stan Fraser 23 Aug '04

23 Aug '04

Is it possible to use an old ATI All in Wonder (Rage128) under Linux ie get the TV part of it working if so, how. Thanks Stan

2 1

sane, slack10 and usb scanner
by Ian bell 23 Aug '04

23 Aug '04

I am haaving trouble getting my usb scanner to work with sane under slack 10. Basicaly the scanner is not detected sort of. scanimage -L gives no scanner found but sane-find-scanner correctly finds and identifies it (found USB scanner (vendor=0x03f0, product=0x2f11) at libusb:001:002). I don't think it is a permissions problem as I get identical results as root. I have tried adding an entry to /etc/hotplug/usb/libsane.usermap but this made no difference. libusb is version 0.1.8 sane is version 1.0.14 Any ideas? Ian

2 1

Re: main digest, Vol 3 #255 - 7 msgs
by phil 23 Aug '04

23 Aug '04

> > Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2004 15:33:47 +0100 (BST) > From: =?iso-8859-1?q?david?= <davecravenromain(a)yahoo.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: [ALUG] im a new user! go me! > > hello there! i am dave! i have recently installed SuSE > 8.1 pro on my personal computer and live in old > buckenham, near attleborough, in norfolk. > > i have been interested in linux for a while now, but > have not had the time or effort to try it out, after a > recent total system crash (ruddy windows) i have taken > the plunge and am now a linux user! > > Hi Dave, I'm not a million miles away in Shelfanger, running SuSE 8.2 and 9.0 on a couple of boxes at work, and YDL occasionally at home. If you need a borrow, I had the Novell Technical Resource Kit turn up the other day - three DVD's of all sorts of things including SuSE 8.2 and 9.1. Oh - anyone know how to get rid of the extra Nautilus desktop items after installing Ximian Desktop and then going back to KDE? Phil

1 0

im a new user! go me!
by david 22 Aug '04

22 Aug '04

hello there! i am dave! i have recently installed SuSE 8.1 pro on my personal computer and live in old buckenham, near attleborough, in norfolk. i have been interested in linux for a while now, but have not had the time or effort to try it out, after a recent total system crash (ruddy windows) i have taken the plunge and am now a linux user! i am interested in web-page construction, design and stuff, and i will get into graphics as soon as i can afford a graphics tablet thingy. also, if anybody wants a cheap-ish web-site, send me an email and i'll see what i can do! yours, dave ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

im a new user! go me!
by david 22 Aug '04

22 Aug '04

hello there! i am dave! i have recently installed SuSE 8.1 pro on my personal computer and live in old buckenham, near attleborough, in norfolk. i have been interested in linux for a while now, but have not had the time or effort to try it out, after a recent total system crash (ruddy windows) i have taken the plunge and am now a linux user! i am interested in web-page construction, design and stuff, and i will get into graphics as soon as i can afford a graphics tablet thingy. also, if anybody wants a cheap-ish web-site, send me an email and i'll see what i can do! yours, dave ===== the man, the boots, the legend, dave please note all incoming chain mail will be deleted on sight, unless i am in a particulaly happy mood, then i might just read it before i delete it. peace through superior fire-power. ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

RE: [ALUG] Syleham Sunday 22nd August IMPORTANT
by Elisabeth 22 Aug '04

22 Aug '04

>===== Original Message From Steve Fosdick <lists(a)pelvoux.nildram.co.uk> ===== > >Is anyone proposing to go to Eli's place then? Hope not cos I gave up and went back to Norwich. e

1 0

RE: [ALUG] Syleham Sunday 22nd August IMPORTANT
by Elisabeth 22 Aug '04

22 Aug '04

>===== Original Message From MJ Ray <mjr(a)dsl.pipex.com> ===== > >Can anyone arrange a meeting in Ipswich or Ely? Could use my place near Ipswich, and the borrowed barbecues will still be there. Only has dial-up, though, not broadband. Eli (sunflowerinrain)

3 2

For nowt
by Graham 22 Aug '04

22 Aug '04

Good home wanted for 400MHz PII in silver ATX midi tower, with 128MB RAM, 6.4GB HDD, CD-ROM, floppy, network and old Philips 17" monitor (the type with the little LCD panel at the front). It was my main server until recently, with 100% reliability. SuSE 9.1 is freshly installed and working fine. I would donate it to charity but for some reason it's clever enough to refuse to install Windows. Because I'm moving soon I need to clear it to save space and clutter. Available to collect either from Wymondham or Histon.

1 0

For sale
by Wayne Stallwood 21 Aug '04

21 Aug '04

Now that I have almost completely migrated over to my new machine the old one is up for grabs. I can't remember exactly when I built it, I think it was some time early 2001, but at the time it was a pretty cutting edge machine. (in fact for a while it was the top of the single processor list at the bogomips register) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22wayne+stallwood%22+bo… Now however it is sitting redundant and unloved. Details Super expensive coolermaster Aluminium case (cost over £100 back then) AMD 1 Ghz Athlon 640MB RAM 40GB Seagate Barracuda HDD (there were more but I've nicked them) Pioneer DVD (A04) DVD-R/RW * see note below DVD ROM drive Floppy (a new one) ATI Rage 128 card (again I've nicked the Nvidia card that was in it) 3Com NIC Creative live 256 gold (or something like that) sound card (more inputs and outputs than you'll ever need) It's an Abit kt7-raid board so the drive is running on a highpoint raid controller and each of the optical drives is on it's own channel on the VIA controller. 300W PSU Logitec Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo Naturally this machine was built to run Linux and apart from a brief flirtation with Windows XP that is all it has ever run. Everything is detected and installed with ease on our favourite Operating System. It will come with SuSE 9.1 preinstalled (and an installation DVD-R) To be honest the CPU fan is sounding a bit stressed so that will be replaced before it is sold. Also the DVD Writer has had a tendancy to make DVD coasters recently. Not sure if it's the cheapo media I have been using or the drive on it's way. You should probably presume that the drive has had it, I am only leaving it in place on the chance that it is configuration or media. This has been a great machine, enjoying uptime only limited by SuSE's kernel update release cycle. I would love to see it go to another Linux user as that was what it was built for. £150.00 Also Dell P991 19" monitor (is exactly the same as a Sony model) Trinitron flat faced screen, happy up to 1600x1200 but I ran it at 1280x1024 A really nice monitor but it's big and HEAVY £50 Or the machine plus the monitor for £185 Also Yamaha 8x4x24 SCSI CDR/W (yes it is a bit slow, but I swear it has NEVER made a coaster under Linux) in an external SCSI case (Ultra D-Sub connector) Plus an Adaptec SCSI card (linux friendly) and all the leads to use the Yamaha either internally or in the external case. £20 Plextor Ultraplex 40x Max PX-40TSi SCSI CD-ROM I used this with the kit above, the plex internally and the Yamaha in the external case (although I do have another external case for the plex if needed) Probably a bit redundant now but at the time this drive was the fastest way to rip CD-Audio. £10 Or everything listed above for £200

1 0

Problems with NTP
by Stuart Bailey 21 Aug '04

21 Aug '04

I'm having trouble synchronising the time of my network clients using NTP. I have a server (helios.perrings) running NTP and listening on UDP 123 (confirmed usinf lsof -i). I also have configured the clients to request time from this server. However, the clients report that no time server can be found. From the documentation, it appears that the src port and dest port should both be 123, but when I do a tcpdump, I get the following results: 20:58:27.476153 IP 192.168.0.10.32851 > helios.perrings.ntp: NTPv4 client, strat 0, poll 4, prec -6 20:58:27.476927 IP helios.perrings.ntp > 192.168.0.10.32851: NTPv4 server, strat 0, poll 4, prec -18 The client's (192.168.0.10) return address is 32851, not 123 as expected. I've been trying to find where this alternative port is set, but going round in circles. Any ideas, suggestions, please? Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

5 4

Re: [ALUG] Problems with NTP
by Stuart Bailey 18 Aug '04

18 Aug '04

On Wednesday 18 August 2004 06:25, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: >> Re: [ALUG] Problems with NTP >> I'm having trouble synchronising the time of my network clients using NTP. I >> have a server (helios.perrings) running NTP and listening on UDP 123 >Which distribution? Suse 9.1. >> From the documentation, it appears that the src port and dest port >> should both be 123, >Really? "man ntpd" doesn't mention the port number at all. When issue man ntpd, the resulting page says that ntpd does not come with man pages - instead look at the documentation that came with it. From the documentation: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/quick.html " That's all there is to it, unless some problem in network connectivity or local operating system configuration occurs. The most common problem is some firewall between the workstation and server. System administrators should understand NTP uses UDP port 123 as both the source and destination port and that NTP does not involve any operating system interaction other than to set the system clock. " I've also just found this from SuSE after re-installing ntp: "CAVEATS ------- The latest NTPv4 ntpdc does not work with previous versions of ntpd and previous versions of ntpdc do not work with latest ntpd. This situation is regrettable and may be fixed in future; however, it is necessary in order for the autokey function to retrieve canonical names and certificates from directory services such as Secure DNS." Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

1 0